Measuring Productivity and Impact of Veterinary Education-Related Research at the Institutional and Individual Levels Using the H-Index

Abstract

The natural progression of observation through inquiry to scholarship that is common to scientists is not well demonstrated among veterinary educators. One possible institutional barrier to promotion of education-related research among faculty is lack of a mechanism to demonstrate productivity and impact of scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) and hypothesis-driven research related to education. The h-index is one measure of research productivity. The h-index was calculated for individuals at one veterinary college and was compared between select North American schools of veterinary medicine to demonstrate baseline values for this kind of scholarship in this discipline. Use of standard search techniques using Google Scholar for citation count generated a slightly lower score than a more labor-intensive search and review of curricula vitae. The h-index across institutions ranged from 1 to 11, with a mean score of 6.0 ( SD = 2.8). Five hundred forty-four education-related articles were published in 45 different journals; the primary sites of publication were the Journal of Veterinary Medical Education ( JVME) and the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association.